Friday 16 March sees the debut of my comic personality Miss Holland on BBC Three. The satire show is split into six short episodes released over a period of six weeks, each instalment depicts an element of British society that Miss Holland is familiarising herself with. The premise of the programme is to explore British culture through the eyes of a Dutch Beauty Queen and innocently challenge the norms that we accept in British culture.

Whether it’s the beautifying elements of body waxing, spray tanning or make-up application with Love Island’s Chloe Crowhurst or learning Royal Family etiquette with Kate and William’s ex-Butler, Miss Holland interacts with many real-life characters and situations throughout its six-part run and no topic is off the agenda.

I created the character five years ago to shine a light on the weird and wonderful ways of Los Angeles, USA and the expectation that all women should look perfect. LA is a bizarre place where you get asked if you’ve been ill if your nails are unkempt. Slowly but surely many women are forced to adapt to this endless upkeep of beauty regimes and must-have cleavage displays for castings or dates. As American culture creeps into the European way of life, more teenage girls occupy themselves with perfecting the art of contouring as opposed to investing in their ISA. Because unfortunately, beauty is still the highest traded commodity for ladies.

Putting the few savings I had into producing online videos led by an odd Dutch beauty queen was not your average 25-year-old’s idea of fun. Nowadays, though we live in such a wonderful new age where we can pick up a camera and create a series on our laptop. It’s a way to show your idea to the world, however strange it may be.

I would like to applaud BBC Three for creating opportunities for this new generation and allowing them to self-produce, write, direct and edit their own online content. Some ideas work, and some don’t but that’s the beauty of piloting ideas online. Content I have tried and tested online can obtain millions of views and the odd award here and there! But ultimately, it’s a creator’s dream to get picked up by the BBC. New markets might be opening up consisting of the global sales and distribution of short-form content. Furthermore, such content is increasingly valued as a format in its own right and is no longer solely viewed as a method of piloting shows for broadcast.

There are challenges that come with the transition from the Wild West of online video platforms to the tried and tested rules and regulations of a broadcaster. As an online content creator it is important to come to grips with these differences. The BBC is required to treat its contributors fairly, it was therefore key that Miss Holland kept her contributors on her side as they had to consent both before and after the interview. As such, it was imperative that they enjoyed the interview. This means the joke was on Miss Holland at all times and we do not embarrass anyone, but simply allude to the social construct that she is innocently challenging. We have a laugh about it afterwards with the contributors and remain on good terms with all of them including the Imam, the former Royal Butler and even the politician who very much enjoyed the interview but decided he didn’t want to be a part of the final show because of the comedic nature.

Comedy is at its best when challenging social norms but these encounters can cause unintended offence. We have worked closely with members of the Muslim community, British male and female writers, the commissioner and editorial policy to stay within the lines of acceptability whilst also trying to push the envelope as a woman in comedy.

At a time when opinion is so divided about Brexit, I can think of no better way to shine a light on the greatness of British culture than by having Miss Holland explore its eclectic mix of nuances.

Miss Holland is available on BBC Three from today Friday 15 March 

Eline Van Der Velden, Creator BBC Three's Miss Holland

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After entering the random ticket ballot to be in the audience for Radio 4 comedy Keep Calman Carry On, our own Jen Macro was surprised and delighted to get a ticket. Here she describes the weird and wonderful world of radio comedy records and Susan Calman’s series in which she tries to learn how to unwind by immersing herself in pursuits that her friends find relaxing.

"Susan Calman looks forward to your company at Up The Creek on Wed 8 Nov for ‘Keep Calman Carry On’.  Please remember photo ID. Enjoy the show!”

That was the text I received, reminding me I’d been successful in getting a ticket to the recording of a new Radio 4 show, written and performed by the Glaswegian comedian, Susan Calman – you know, the one off Strictly.

I hadn’t forgotten, the date stamped firmly in my diary.

Excited to see the diminutive Scot share her experiences of taking time out from the pressurised media spotlight, to find peace of mind through activities such as birdwatching and baking, I made my way across London on the DLR to Greenwich. Ready to join a queue of people, to make sure I got in to the evening’s entertainment, as I’d been warned: “As not everyone who asks for tickets uses them we send out more tickets than there are places. This means that admission is on a first come first served basis and is not guaranteed”

When I arrive the queue is already worryingly long, but I soon get my ticket validated, attaining my orange sticker from the lovely BBC Audience Service people.  I nab a quick bit of food before heading back to the venue for ‘7pm at the latest’ to take my seat at the South London comedy club, in expectation for recording to begin.

By way of warming us up, Susan plies us with a few anecdotes from her other job on ‘some dancing show’. These include the perils of being sewn in to a costume, and how her dance this week ends with a passionate embrace with her partner Kevin Clifton – only he doesn’t know that yet. She goes on to inform the small audience that over 6,000 people applied to come to these recordings, and that somewhere in the vicinity of 4.8 million apply to be in the audience of Strictly each week… ‘just to watch me dance’ she says, tongue firmly in cheek.

Suffering from a chest infection and being run ragged by rehearsals for her upcoming tango, Susan apologises for coughing and asks the audience to switch off phones, as last night’s performance was interrupted by the chirping of telecoms interference on the mic.

Then it’s go. “Clap and cheer when I raise my arms”… and we’re in.

I’ve never been to a recording of a radio programme before, and the first thing that strikes me is, I don’t make any noise when I laugh… I chuckle, I shoulder-shrug, but I don’t guffaw or ROFL [roll on the floor laughing]. Oh no, my ticket has been wasted, what they need here are noisy laughers, that’s the point. Oh well – no going back now, I think, maybe I should relax and just let go a little, that is what the show is about after all.

Naively, I did think her guests, Selasi Gbotmittah (from Great British Bake Off) and comedian and writer Emma Kennedy, would be at the show with her. Instead, their voices were on pre-recorded clips played in to the show. It makes sense now and my momentary disappointment was allayed by watching Susan’s face as she silently reacted to the audio clips.

Watching, I’m slightly concerned that every now and then Susan says a sentence and then immediately says it again. It’s like a glitch in the matrix. I realise however, after the first couple of times, that she’s saving the editor time. She may have fluffed a word so is re-doing it in context so it’s easier to fix in the edit.

There are also a few retakes after both recordings, instigated by her producer Lyndsay Fenner. The banter between the pair is hilarious: “we’ve known each other a long time, it’s ok”. A question arises as to whether Selasi is “the nicest person to ever brulee a crème”, then Lyndsay points out, “shouldn’t that be to have ever bruleed a crème?” When the front rows nod approval at the grammatical correctness, Susan quips “Oh there’s definitely a Radio 4 audience in tonight!”

And it is quite lovely how the Radio 4 contingent of the audience mix with the Strictly Come Dancing lot. There must also be many like me, who consider themselves to be a member of both camps -  this crossover mainly down to a shared admiration of the highly strung Glaswegian stood before us.

She is Susan Calman, she is funny, and charming. She is a woman of the people who wanted to go on Strictly Come Dancing to prove that “you don’t need to be stick thin and 25 to enjoy dancing” and so that everyone could be Wonder Woman.

She finds it hard to relax. Don’t we all? We all need a bit of Keep Calman Carry On.

Jen Macro is a Digital Producer for About the BBC Blog

• Catch up with Keep Calman Carry on on Radio 4
• Find out how to apply to be in the audience for BBC shows at the Shows, Tours and Take Part website

As the sixth and final episode of the third series in a series of three series, very much comes to an end, a BBC staff member reveals what it was like to be an extra person, in a room full of other extra people and a TARDIS, in a scene that, when all the other scenes were put in order, was to become the final scene of the sitcom 'W1A':

When I first moved from the US and joined the BBC Academy last year, a colleague told me I needed to watch W1A in order to understand what the BBC was like. I found the comedy absolutely hilarious. The tropes of clueless managers, consultants full of meaningless buzzwords, put-upon staff and endless meetings where nothing gets decided were recognisable to anyone who’d ever worked in an office, not just the BBC. (Although I work in Birmingham, so maybe we’re just insulated from some of the craziness of London!)

So when another colleague told me she’d seen signs in New Broadcasting House in London advertising for staff volunteers to be extras for a W1A 'launch party' scene, I jumped at the chance. Having come from a web video background where I was always a one-woman-band, I’d never experienced a proper TV or film shoot with an actual crew and set.

I arrived at NBH at 7am on a Friday in February for a coach to Pinewood Studios with about 30 other staff.

After arrival, we changed into our own 'party clothes', and were told to wait outside the building on a converted double-decker bus with tables. I squeezed in with some friendly team mates from the BBC Weather app and we played cards until things finally kicked into action at noon.

We 'extra' extras joined the more glamorous professional extras inside a large set dressed to look like a party venue or club, with moving coloured lights, dry-ice smoke, and logos and decorations for 'BBC Me' (a fictional new initiative involving selfies and user-generated content, of course) everywhere.

A lit-up Doctor Who blue police box TARDIS was the centrepiece on a small elevated stage. We were all handed prop drinks (sadly non-alcoholic) and told to mime like we were talking to each other, but not make any noise. This was as embarrassing and difficult as you’d think.

While we silently chatted away, the characters Siobhan Sharpe (Jessica Hynes) and her Perfect Curve team were arguing with Simon Harwood (Jason Watkins) and Tracey Pritchard (Monica Dolan). They did the scene again and again, with the two cameras in different positions, while the writer John Morton constantly popped between the monitors in the back of the room and the shot to give them directions.

I noticed Jessica Hynes wore ridiculous silver platform heels for the wide shots, but stood on a small box wearing fuzzy slippers for the closeups. Very sensible!

After a short break, it was time for the silent disco. We all put on headphones that glowed green, a DJ beamed Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping into our ears and we danced energetically (but quietly) while roving cameras filmed us and the big cameras stayed on some scenes involving Will the intern (Hugh Skinner) and Ian Fletcher (High Bonneville). After a few takes, that was a wrap, around 7:30pm.

As we all walked out, my new friend Andy from the weather app team was brave enough to ask Nina Sosanya, who plays Lucy Freeman, for a photograph. I was too shy to do the same, but I did tell her that I worked for the BBC and that she was my favourite character on the show. She laughed and said “Why, because I’m the only normal one surrounded by a bunch of crazy people? Am I basically you?”

Well, not to cast aspersions on my lovely colleagues, but...

Laura Taflinger is a Multi Platform Producer for Web Editorial Production at the BBC.

• Read John Morton's blog 'W1A - Nothing worthwhile is easy'
• Watch the full series of W1A on BBC iPlayer - available for 5 weeks from the broadcast of the last episode (Monday 23 October)
• Relive Laura's two seconds of fame in the show (she's the one with the 'Hello Ben' sign)

John Morton, writer and director of Twenty Twelve and W1A discusses how he came to set his sights on the BBC for the hit series, and how he tried to avoid writing a follow-up to Twenty Twelve.

It’s Autumn 2012. Perhaps not surprisingly Twenty Twelve, a show about the organisation of the London Olympics, has come to an end and I’m cycling across London (on a fold up bike bought from the set) on my way to a meeting to discuss any ideas I might have for taking the show or the characters further.

Of course I haven’t got any ideas. I’d said from the outset that unusually for a television show Twenty Twelve had its own end built into it from the start: once the Olympics had come and gone it was dead. The clue was in the title. ‘Yes but will you at least come and talk about possibilities’ was the gnomic and in retrospect very W1A response. Of course I was too weak to say no.

Looking back now I realise that if anything is going to clear the mind and liberate the creative juices in unexpected ways, an hour’s pedalling through central London traffic on a child sized bike isn’t it. But at the time I didn’t know that and I arrive at the appointed Italian restaurant with nothing .

Over fizzy water and some sort of pesto affair Jon Plowman (Twenty Twelve Exec Producer) and Mark Freeman (the BBC’s then Head of something) do their best to prod me gently in various benign ways. Was there somehow a way of transplanting the characters lock stock and barrel to a new situation somewhere else? That’s an easy one. No, there wasn’t. Could they believably be recruited one by one to help with next Olympics in Rio perhaps? Again I was ahead of them. No they couldn’t.

This was going better than I thought. I seemed to have got involved in a sort of anti-pitch process and was beginning to be think that if I stuck to my principles for once I was probably capable of making it out of the building without any kind of commission at all. And the thing is I nearly made it, but then over coffee I made a really basic mistake.

At some point during the life of Twenty Twelve I remember saying, again under intense questioning, that the only kind of future life for the show might be to take Hugh Bonnevilles’s character Ian Fletcher, drop him somewhere else, and start all over again with all the other characters. I’d briefly thought about the BBC as a possible place to drop him and for some reason I reminded them of this now.

I thought it was safe to mention it. With the BBC having just gone through a really tough time, this was surely an even worse idea now than it had been at the time. But it was already was too late. I should never have had the pudding. They’d played the long game and they’d won.

By the time I’d managed to unfold the bike on the pavement outside the restaurant the course of the next four years of my life were set. But really I shouldn’t complain.

When I was first trying to get started as a writer I had a Post It note stuck to my computer screen: Nothing worthwhile is easy. I can’t remember who said it now, but it’s helped me ever since. Back then when rejections came - regularly, often, in fact always for a few years - it was a reminder that no one said this was going to be easy, that most people who are trying to get going probably end up folding at some point, and that not folding was about the only part of the process that was within my control.

These days it’s even more applicable. Confronted with the prospect of writing a third and probably final series of W1A at the start of last year my first thoughts are all to do with the familiar weight of responsibility I feel to the actors, the viewers, the BBC, to the characters themselves who don’t even exist for Christ’s sake. In the attempt to make these six new half hours a bit the same, at the same time different, and crucially better than everything that’s gone before, the daily battle with the writer’s (for me) natural feelings of inadequacy are in some ways even harder to win than they ever were. To remind yourself that it’s never been easy, it’s not supposed to be easy, and that if you were finding it easy the chances are it wouldn’t be any good is an essential part of the process.

Is it all worthwhile? It’s not for the writer to judge ultimately and in the case of W1A it’s too late now anyway, it’s out there.

As Siobhan Sharpe herself would say and in fact has said in the past - "We are where we are with this guys. And that’s never a good place to be."

Judge for yourself whether it was all worthwhile or not as W1A series 3 begins at 10pm on Monday 18 September on BBC Two.

Life as a producer/director is maddening; demanding; frustrating; exhausting; exasperating; head-banging; incessant. We are feisty and bolshy, passionate about pulling a perfect rabbit out of an ill-fitting hat for a deadline of yesterday, with never enough money. We're workaholic problem-solvers, bit-in-teeth determined wizards, lip-smacking, nit-picking, indomitable big-picture seers. And the truth is that you have no idea what's going to be thrown at you on any given day. As the saying goes, “We make plans, God laughs.” (I have that on good authority - check out the surname.).

Here comes the science bit:

1) The bottom line is that you ARE the bottom line

The very first thing you need to grasp when you embark on a career directing or producing is that everything that goes wrong is your fault and everything brilliant is down to somebody else. If your PA distributes the script with 87 pages of page 87 and 0 pages of pages 1–86 and 88–119, it's your fault.

Meanwhile, when your lead actor wins an award for his compelling portrayal of a doctor mostly based on his fluent pronunciation of the word 'plethysmograph' - which is entirely down to you having worked with him for 72 hours straight acquainting him with the syllables on an individual basis - it's totally due to his brilliance in the role. Get used to it, buck stopper.

2) As a producer or director, there's nothing you don't know, OK?

I made one radio series with a very well-known English actor* as one of the leads. Over Champagne at the Langham Hotel, paid for by The Actor I hasten to add, **Licence Fee payers breathe a sigh of relief** we discussed absolutely every single intricate aspect of his character, from background to foreground. It took hours and by the end of the process I was exhausted. This is not the typical way actors behave when booked for a not-that-brilliantly-paid radio job, involving barely more than reading from a script in front of a mic, with no live audience and ample time for as many retakes as necessary. But I left our meeting safe in the knowledge that Sir John Gielgud couldn't have put more effort into what would become his definitive portrayal of Hamlet.

Quite late on the evening before the recording, my home phone rang. I answered it to find The Actor on the other end of the line. “Diane,” he breathed silkily, “Just to confirm I'll be at the recording studios in good time tomorrow. Also to ask something I forgot the other night.” [THERE WAS NOTHING YOU FORGOT TO ASK THE OTHER NIGHT, APART FROM THE CHARACTER'S SHOE SIZE I didn't say.] “What do you want me to wear?” I advised something monochrome since radio was still in its black and white infancy.

3) Comedy’s a serious business

Another notable experience included producing Week Ending throughout the entire run of the first Gulf War which in itself made history, since in such times most broadcasting networks typically cancel anything remotely satirical. But Radio 4 rather bravely stuck its neck out and I’m delighted to report that the series won much acclaim.

However, such was the import of the decision, each week I had to run the pre-broadcast playback in the office of the Radio 4 Controller, Michael Green, with the Head of Comedy, Jonathan James Moore also in attendance.

Nobody laughed at any of the jokes but the only thing in the whole series that I had to amend was a sketch featuring the discovery that Saddam Hussein’s famous SCUD missile launchers were actually made out of cardboard; one of the writers had written a beautifully-constructed Blue Peter skit, in which instruction for making a SCUD missile launcher was given, using nothing more than 36,784 toilet roll inserts and a roll of sticky back plastic. I was asked to remove all allusion to Blue Peter, as “it might encourage young people to make their own SCUD missile launchers”.

What did my time at the BBC teach me? Well, obviously it’s now a personal mission of mine to inform, educate and entertain and, whilst I’m still working on the last of those, if anyone wants a blueprint for a SCUD missile launcher along with a cardboard badge with some sails on it, just drop me a line with an SAE…

*Not his real name

• Visit Diane's comedy blog.
• Follow BBC Comedy on Twitter

Our sitcom season is underway with screenings of Are You Being Served? and Porridge complimenting a new selection of comedies for BBC Two and Three. You can find out more about the season in Head of Comedy Shane Allen's blog post we published a few weeks ago. 

There is one element in the sitcom which is overlooked - the signature tune. Evocative 30 second sequences of tightly-composed music which set the tone for the half-hour which follows. Without you realising it, that signature tune embeds itself in your psyche. From now until the end of your life, that tune will be a shortcut to the time when that sitcom made the first and greatest impact on you. 

But take a closer listen to the signature tune and they reveal themselves as a surprisingly complex (or simple) creation. The greatest exponent was the much-loved BBC's Head of Music, Television and Light Entertainment, Ronnie Hazlehurst. Other greats have followed, some of which I've included in this post. It's not exhaustive by any means, but it is brimming with adoration.

Are You Being Served? 

Ronnie Hazlehurst’s most well-known musical creations is a classic of the genre. Jazz, soul and funk influences ooze from the signature tune to Are You Being Served?

The funk-powered bass line crawls effortless around as though in its own blissful world, momentarily interrupted by gentle trumpet calls. Heard in Matt Berry and his band’s live rendition at the 02 in Islington (below), it gives the entire number an air of much-overlooked sophistication.

What transforms the opening titles soundtrack is the sound-effect of the cash register and the eerie but strangely reassuring lift-announcement. It is as bizarre as it is beguiling, and at 24 seconds it’s also a breathtakingly efficient creation.

Butterflies

‘Love Is Like A Butterfly’ was originally a Dolly Parton hit from 1974. 

In Hazlehurst’s arrangement of the song for the opening of Carla Lane’s comedy Butterflies, the song takes on more a dreamy quality.

A soft bass line (considerably less ‘oompah-pah’ than the original) underpins Clare Torry’s gentler vocal style. The inclusion of three flutes playing in close harmony adds a sense of sun-kissed abandon to the proceedings.

I always found it left me with a vague sense of something awful about to happen to the central characters, though this might be an over-active imagination on my part.

Dear John 

Another Hazlehurst arrangement, this time of a song written by the sitcom’s writer John Sullivan (him of Only Fools and Horses fame). Dear John wasn’t a favourite comedy of mine, but it did expertly establish the premise within a short space of time.

The overall effect of the alto sax responding to the wispy vocals of Joan Baxter was that of a fading memory disowned by all parties. Wendy – wife of the central character Ralph Bates’ who announces her intention to split with him in a letter – immediately annoyed me whenever I heard the tune.

Perhaps that was the point. Within 30 seconds we were made to feel sympathy for the lead character. Unfortunately for me, he also reminded me of my geography teacher at school. 

Don't Wait Up

Nick Ingman (also known for Keeping Up Appearances) wrote the signature tune for the tea-time sitcom about father and son doctors who lived together in ‘domestic bliss’. The middle class chintz wasn’t far from my own as a teenager (I’m happy to admit that – it wasn’t my fault), and there was also something vaguely aspirational about young Doctor Latimer’s good looks and floppy hair.

Don’t Wait Up and the lives of the two Latimers made the prospect of adulthood exciting and dynamic, projecting a positive image my potential future working life with my Dad (he is a photographer who ran his own business and at that stage in my life I thought I was destined to work with him – it didn’t quite work out that way).

Ingman’s music underpins that sense of excitement with a broad sweeping melodic line punctuated with a mid-tempo beat. The overall effect is unashamedly middle of the road, but the 40 second introduction is tight and strangely satisfying.

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

On a personal level, Reginald Perrin is Ronnie Hazlehurst’s best creation. 

Taut, efficient, and evocative, the sparse ensemble consists of two flutes, characteristic Hazlehurst-bass, a tortured horn melody, a mournful counter-melody in the cello, and an electrifying ride cymbal. 

There is a manic quality to the 35 second intro which begins each half hour episode with so much musical tension that the final chord (in the major key) is a much-needed but often over-looked release. A masterful composition.

Game On

Like Butterflies, Game On's signature tune had a previous life. US 'power pop group' Gigolo Aunts' When I Find My Heaven was first released in 1993. It was re-released in 1995 to coincide with the song appearing in the film Dumb and Dumber, before making it to the opening sequence of the BBC's late 90s sitcom about three twenty-something flat-mates. 

Cut with the video clips, the opening sequence catapulted me back to university at the same time as acting as a TV representation of the working life I had just embarked upon in my twenties. Me, and two other contemporaries in my new workplace would regularly sit to watch the sitcom, (sort of) picturing ourselves in the fictional scenario. I was the agrophobe.

Gimme Gimme Gimme

Strictly speaking, Gimme Gimme Gimme, is a hybrid signature tune like Game On. It’s origins as an ABBA song are obvious, but it’s the arrangement for Jonathan Harvey’s brilliant comedy which sets the tone for the entire programme. 

Hearing it now reminds me how perfect the entire package – script, actors and set - seemed to me when I first saw it in 1999. A sitcom I never thought I needed, but now I’ve seen it I can’t imagine it not being in my life. I even wanted to know someone like Kathy Burke’s Linda La Hughes and (secretly) wanted to be a bit like James Dreyfus’ withering Tom Farrell. 

The strained vocals in the signature emphasised the close bond the two characters had in the drama. Don't tell my ABBA-loving partner, but I think I probably like the sitcom version of the band's classic song more than their original. 

Ever Decreasing Circles

I was surprised to discover that the signature tune to Ever Decreasing Circles was in fact a Prelude written by Shostakovich. It's not as fiendish to play as it might sound - it was part of the Associated Board's Grade 7 repertoire for 2015/16.

The music's quality echoes the darkness of the comedy itself. Martin Bryce is an order-loving bureaucrat with an insatiable appetite for committees, Gesteteners and in-trays.

But Martin was a man on the brink - aware enough of the impact his needs had on himself and on others around him. One small step from mental oblivion. He always struck me as a man ever so slightly out of shift with everyone else, someone who needed just the tiniest of nudges to get on track.

And that is reflected in the way in which Shostakovich's seemingly sweet, innocent and childlike melody subtly gets out of control and veers into something a little bit twisted.

Keeping Up Appearances

Another creation by composer Nick Ingman. The opening titles of Keeping Up Appearances saw my first exposure to the importance of and joy to be found in carefully laid out envelopes. As a teenager I rather appreciated the way Hyacinth measured the exact position of the stamp and, by doing so, introduced me to the joys of margins and gutters.

The music underlined the folly of all that attention to detail. A sprightly march punctuated by a pompous-sounding bassoon, over which a sprightly self-important melody tries to convince us that everything Hyacinth does really matters, if only we’d take time to notice the detail.

The effect is hollow and meaningless, only serving to remind us of how equally meaningless all that dusting and enunciation is too.

Some Mothers Do Av' Em

Yet another Hazlehurst creation. His most inventive. Two piccolos bash out a melody set to the rhythm of Morse Code that spells out the show's title. Simple. Playful. Effortless. What a way to make a living.  

Sorry!

Keyboards and saxophones and rich range of percussion instruments make the never-ending quality of Sorry!’s signature tune dark and ever-so-slightly depressing at the same time.

It sounds fun, but the musical ‘sorry’ hook has a feeling of resignation about it all. The music is constantly trying to resolve into something in the major key (when it does there’s a much-needed feeling of relief because it brings things to an end).

It is a marvellous creation, but like a thick sauce, I can only take a little of it without feeling a little sick.  

Vicar of Dibley

The internet is awash with opening credit clips of sitcoms and television dramas. That was one of the motivating reasons for penning this blog post in the first place - internet search results can sometimes reveal a previously unacknowledged appetite for content previously overlooked. 

The Vicar of Dibley opening titles are surprisingly difficult to find. This might indicate the music's popularity outside of the series. Composer Howard Goodall set Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd for boy treble originally for the series but intending it to have a life beyond the series.

It is a delightfully lyrical number which deftly establishes a mood almost at odds with the comedy which follows. The melody's apparent simplicity may also help explain its popularity with choirs up and down the country: its accessibility makes it's relatively straightforward to sing.

Goodall was also responsible for the signature tune to ITV's Mr Bean and the theme from Blackadder.  

Miranda

Sweet, straightforward, and uncomplicated with a hint of shabby-chic. Miranda's a favourite of mine because it's so jaw-droppingly punctual. 

Terry and June

John Shakespeare’s signature tune for the Purley-based Terry and June is a fitting creation.

The combination of high flute, trumpet and bass clarinet and saxophone is a strange one. The horn responses give the piece some much-needed depth, while the off-beat tambourine lends an air of absent-minded lounge-based ‘jigging about’ of the kind I did catch my mother doing in our lounge whenever Terry and June was on television.

If music can conjure up an era of synthetic fabrics, shampoo and sets, and over-bearing flower prints, then Shakespeare’s composition is the blueprint.

I like it, but I’m also slightly terrified by it at the same time. It’s as though the melody is threatening to go on until the end of time and cannot be stopped by anyone or anything.

Jon Jacob is Editor, About the BBC Blog

• Read Head of Comedy Shane Allen's Blog introducing the BBC Landmark Sitcom Season.
  
• The BBC Landmark Sitcom Season features revivals on BBC One, new comedies on BBC Two, new comedy feeds on BBC Three and lost sitcoms on BBC Four. See all of the programmes here. 
  
• A full schedule of programming can be found on the sitcom season website.
• Follow @BBCComedy on Twitter.

If you're in the know, then you will have already been watching Fleabag, waiting patiently for the last five Thursdays as BBC Three released each episode online. If you're not in the know, we'd like to put you in the know, so, y'know...know, and give you the opportunity to start watching the series from the beginning as it airs on BBC Two on Sunday 21 August at 10pm.

The creation of Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who also co-wrote the excellent Crashing shown earlier this year on Channel 4), Fleabag started life as a one-woman play which debuted at The Edinburgh Festival in 2013. Waller-Bridge wrote and stars in the dark comedy, her response to Damian Kavanagh, Digital Controller of BBC Three commissioning the six-part series being "I can't believe they've let me do this.”

Fleabag has been described as a lot of things from 'a really, really, really, really bleak version of Miranda' (Guardian), to 'a gloriously rude update of Bridget Jones's Diary' (Telegraph), to 'The British answer to ‘Girls’' (Grazia) and has seemed to have caught the imagination of viewers too, with a large amount of them taking to Twitter to praise the show, from popstars:

to journalists:

to fellow comedy writers:

So, as mentioned, the series starts its run on terrestrial TV on Sunday 21 August, but Fleabag is not the first comedy that has found its footing in the nurturing environment of BBC Three and then made the leap to BBC One or BBC Two. We had a quick scan through the archives and found these BBC Three original comedies that were repeated on or moved to the mainstream BBC channels and went on to great success.

Starting out on Radio 4, Little Britain had it's first airing on television as part of the new channel showcase on BBC Three on February 9th, 2003, listed as 'Comedy sketches satirising modern life', the show was repeated on BBC One from December of the same year and spawned a host of quotable catcphrases from schoolgirl Vicky Pollard's 'Yeah but no but' to the jobsworthian 'Computer says no'.

Written by and starring Julia Davis, this (very) dark sitcom centred around Jill, a 27 year old beauty salon owner, determined to make a fresh start after learning her husband Terry (Kevin Eldon) has terminal cancer. Airing on BBC Three in January 2004, it made it's way to BBC Two two months later. The show which also starred Angus Deayton and Rebecca Front (The Day Today, The Thick Of It) won critical acclaim, winning BAFTA awards for Best Comedy Performance and Situation Comedy, and Best New TV Comedy at the British Comedy Awards in 2005.

Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding's offbeat sitcom set in a magical zoo was a follow on to The Boosh radio series which was first broadcast on BBC London Live in 2001. The Mighty Boosh first appeared on TV in May 2004. The duo's surreal 'journey through time and space' became a cult classic and series one was repeated on BBC Two in November, 2004. The comedy ran for three series and the pair also toured a stage version of the show. Fielding went on to become (among other things) a team captain on BBC Two's Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

After appearing in the aforementioned Little Britain (as Myfanwy) and Nighty Night (as Linda), Ruth Jones went on to co-write Gavin and Stacey with James Corden (The Wrong Mans). The award-winning sitcom following the blossoming relationship between a girl from Barry and a boy from Billericay was first broadcast in July 2007 on BBC Three with a repeat of the following month on BBC Two. The second series was also premiered on the BBC's digital only channel, but the Christmas special in 2008 and the third (and final) series were first aired on BBC One, with the show's last episode on January 1st, 2010 attracting just over 10.2 million viewers.

Alright, so Him & Her, a comedy based around the lives of Becky and Steve, a young couple living together in a flat in Walthamstow, never actually left BBC Three, much in the same way the two main characters never seemed to leave their flat, but we thought it was worth a mention, not only because of it's popularity, but because the writer, Stefan Golaszewski's latest creation Mum was broadcast on BBC Two earlier this year. Starring Leslie Manville as Cathy, a recently widowed mum of a grown up son, this charming sitcom, too, struggled to leave the house.

Kicking off in September 2012, Cuckoo was BBC Three's most watched comedy launch. Starring Greg Davies, Helen Baxendale and originally starring Tamla Kari as Rachel and US Comic Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as the title character, the comedy about a suburban family dealing with their daughter's, new, New Age husband proved popular and continues to be a jewel in the BBC Three crown. Series three was one of the first programmes to become available when BBC Three became an online only channel in February 2016 with the series being repeated on BBC One.

Jen Macro is Digital Content Producer, About the BBC Blog and website.

• Read how BBC Three continue to commission and nurture new comedy talent: 'BBC Three feeds you brand new British comedy' on the BBC Media Centre website
• Watch all 6 episodes of Fleabag on BBC iPlayer
• Find out about the BBC Landmark Sitcom Season in 'Here comes the comedy Olympics'
• Follow @BBCThree on twitter

Here’s a tough question for you – name your top 5 sitcoms (UK) of all time. Your list will probably feature some of the classics alongside ones that remain very influential to you depending on your age and taste of course. But it’s tricky, isn’t it?

Our forthcoming Landmark Sitcom Season marks 60 years since the terrifically misanthropic Hancock hit the small screen, which has given us the chance to shine a light on a genre that evokes great passion and reflects a deep part of our national identity.

When a sitcom reaches that hallowed ‘classic’ status it is enjoyed over and over by new generations as the characters and settings become timeless. My happiest childhood memories are of watching Open All Hours, Only Fools and Horses and Fawlty Towers as a family, with three different generations all coming together through laughter. It’s a joyful bonding experience and ultimately comedy’s job is to cheer everyone up.

This landmark season is a celebration of the craft of comedy writing. We’ve chosen pieces across all four channels that recognise and extol the original minds that come up with these funny settings, characters and lines that make such an impression upon us.

BBC One Revivals

On BBC One we’ve already had Mrs Brown’s Boys Live tickle the nation with an audience of 11.5m. Next we’ve got some comedy royalty back – Clement and La Frenais, Marks and Gran and Roy Clarke - doing their signature pieces with us to offer up a mix of updates, Porridge, Goodnight Sweetheart, Young Hyacinth, a prequel to Keeping Up Appearances and an homage to Are You Being Served? written by the brilliant Derren Litten.

Landing populist sitcoms on BBC One is the most challenging part of what we do - critics tend towards loving the more irreverent shows which play to smaller audiences, and mainstream studio sitcoms were deemed unfashionable in the immediate wake of The Office.  But mainstream comedy is still a huge part of what separates the BBC from all other broadcasters, and the commitment to family shows has become a huge part of the legacy and soul of British comedy with all the major hits of the last 60 years being a mainly BBC story.

There’s also a one-off panel show called We Love Sitcom which looks at different generations of sitcoms, featuring familiar faces from the comedy world and BBC One daytime is also joining in the fun with a sitcom-themed episode of Pointless Celebrities.

New on BBC Two

On BBC Two we’re embracing the channel’s reputation for the pioneering and eclectic with five brand new specials from the cream of contemporary British comedy.  These are Home from Home, We the Jury, Motherland, Our Ex-Wife and The Coopers vs The Rest. From stellar writers including Sharon Horgan, Holly Walsh, Graham Linehan, Andy Wolton and James Acaster, these brand new half-hours with super-talented casts, guarantee something for everyone.

Comedy has diversified in its range of voices and genre from satire, comedy thrillers, comedy drama, studio sitcom, single camera narratives, spoofs, mock docs to sketch…and BBC Two has been at the forefront of bringing us all these idiosyncratic shows that break new comedic turf.

Also on Two, our friends in factual are giving us Jimmy Carr And The Science Of Laughter: A Horizon Special.

BBC Three Comedy Feeds

As part of the season, BBC Three is launching its new batch of Comedy Feeds – six shows capturing our commitment to finding the very best of new British talent both on and off the screen. These pieces have a youthful attitude and modern voice at their heart and cement Three’s reputation as the crucial place for emerging British talent to cut their teeth. Recent success stories that have rippled out from comedy feeds include BAFTA-nominated People Just Do Nothing, Josh and Sunny D. These complement the revivals on BBC One by seeking out the hit shows and stars of tomorrow.

At the time of writing, not all the BBC Three Comedy Feeds have been made and delivered – that’s how fresh out of the oven they are! Find out more on the BBC Media Centre website.  

BBC Four

BBC Four’s involvement in the season is to right some wrongs of comedy history and also provide us with a definitive history of the British sitcom, with contributions from many of the biggest names to have ever walked through the BBC’s doors, called British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing at Ourselves.

Also on BBC Four, some master tapes of episodes of those formative sitcoms from the 1960s were lost at a time before people realised they would go on to be classic comedies loved by generations to come. So we’ve re-staged them with new casts and the original scripts.

We’ve chosen three pieces which at the time marked a shift from the polite comedies that came before and offered up social realism that reflected the real working class lives of the audiences.  They are Till Death Do Us Part, Steptoe & Son and of course the lad himself who sparked everything off – Hancock’s Half Hour. All three pieces endure in the crispness and timelessness of the writing.

You can see from the showreel the breadth and range of what we do. Shining a light on this unique legacy, promoting what’s exciting about the contemporary and nurturing the future. Comedy’s hard to get right, but when a show connects, it’s loved the most and lasts the longest.

Who knows, maybe something you see might even make your top 5 one day?

BBC Learning, BBC Comedy and the National Literacy Trust have announced a major new comedy writing competition to encourage 13- 15 year olds to have a go at writing comedy.

The competition, which is backed by major comedy figures including Charlie Higson, David Walliams (pictured above) and raising star Kerry Howard has three categories:

• Class Joker – Stand-up. Turn personal observations and views of the world into a written and performed stand-up comedy routine.
• Class Act – The Sketch. Write a unique sketch and bring it to life with funny ideas and characters.
• Class Comic – Clever Captions. Find what's funny in an image and write a comedy caption.

Jon Jacob caught up with Helen Foulkes, Creative Director BBC Learning and BBC Comedy Controller Shane Allen to find out more about the initiative.

What was the inspiration for doing a literacy campaign around comedy?

Helen Foulkes: BBC Learning’s campaigns seek to address real educational or societal needs in the UK. More than one in three young people do not achieve a GCSE in English at Grade C or above and our 16-24 year olds came 22nd out of the 24 countries measured for levels of literacy by the OECD. We therefore made literacy one of our campaign priorities for 2016.

Comedy is a great way to engage 13-15 year olds in aspects of literacy, helping them to improve their writing skills as they approach their GCSEs (Nationals and Highers in Scotland). We hope that the campaign will provide 13-15 year olds with a greater understanding of some of the writing techniques used by professional comedy writers and how to construct, analyse and deliver comedy writing. 

The BBC is doing this is partnership with the National Literacy Trust – how important is to work closely with them on this?

Helen Foulkes: The National Literacy Trust is one of the UKs leading agencies in promoting literacy. They have worked with us to produce educational resources to support the competition, and have helped ensure they are of real value to teachers, curriculum-linked and easily integrated into lessons. We want Comedy Classroom to make a difference in real classrooms across the UK. BBC Learning is leading the way in the delivering the aspiration for a more open BBC where we increasingly work in partnership with others. This builds on our most recent campaign, BBC micro:bit, where we worked with over 30 partners to help a generation to get creative with coding.

How will the competition work?

Helen Foulkes: This is a UK-wide competition that runs from 19 April to 24July 2016 and delivered through schools. There are three categories: Class Joker – Stand-up, Class Act – The Sketch, and Class Comic – Clever Captions - we’ve designed the entry categories to be inclusive and open to students of all abilities and interests.  

To enter you will need to be in Year 9 or 10 in England and Wales, Year 10 or 11 in Northern Ireland or S3 or S4 in Scotland. Students can enter on their own or as part of a group of up to four people, but teachers will then be responsible for uploading and submitting the work before the competition. Teachers can find out all they need to know on our dedicated website.

Can teenagers enter the competition on their own?

Helen Foulkes: We really wanted to make sure that the campaign delivers real educational outcomes, with improvements to the literacy of young people across the UK. So we have designed the competition to be fully integrated into lessons - whether that’s English or Drama, or used by schools in a different way within the timetable. Students will therefore need to enter the competition through their school. We hope teachers will promote the competition and encourage students to enter, but we also want young people to spur their schools to get involved. 

What resources are available for the teachers and would be comedy writers?

Helen Foulkes: Teachers can download a fantastic set of resources at bbc.co.uk/comedyclassroom – they will find everything they need to work with students  confidently and flexibly on this competition within their classroom with clear objectives and outcomes. The resources have been supported by a cast of comedians and writers, giving the learning resources a sense of authenticity and relevance. There are also some fantastic films written and made by David Williams which explain each of the competition categories. The site also includes some brilliant clips from the BBC's comedy archive that can be used to explain and showcase each of the entry categories.

Could this competition uncover the next generation of comedy writers and performers?

Shane Allen: That’s always something to hope for in a nationwide competition but primarily it’s about the opportunity to unlock everyone’s ability to learn through laughter. The impetus was less of a talent competition to find the writing and performing stars of tomorrow and more about harnessing the techniques and comic devices that make people laugh so that the fun and playfulness inherent in comedy can introduce children to literacy in a lateral and engaging way. It’s not just for the show-offs and extroverts to get more attention! That’s why it’s important to have a variety of categories with the sketch and caption elements geared towards the ‘ideas people’ too. I also hope it helps promote confidence, humour provides a different way to express yourself and also bring people together.

How are you using the competition to engage with the current talent you work with?

Shane Allen: Lots of comedians and comedy writers talk fondly about when they first realised they were funny and often that started in the classroom or playground. People who work in comedy are very passionate and obsessive about it as an art form which should be taken as seriously as drama, as oftentimes comedy can be trivialised or side-lined. The famous writers and performers we work with spend a lot of time, mental effort and energy creating their work as they all strive to be original and make the nation laugh. So all of the big name talent are very behind this on a personal level, as comedy is something that first gave them their confidence and later gave them a career so this is a chance to share the comedy gift with the next generation and show how it’s an important art-form that can inspire young minds to be creative. Comedians talk about their writing all the time – writing jokes, sitcoms, routines and so on, and hopefully this is all about playing with ideas and helping to make writing something enjoyable.

What tips do you have for would be stand ups and writers?

Shane Allen: It’s about playing and experimenting with words and ideas and not everything lands fully formed first time. Try things out on family and friends, road test your work and cut out the bits that don’t get a laugh. Don’t be afraid of negative criticism, call everything ‘a work in progress’. Write what you think is funny, don’t try and second guess your audience/peers. Use your life as inspiration, funny stories you’ve heard or things you’ve noticed that make you smile… work them up. Also - everyone in the whole world is afraid of being embarrassed by saying or doing the wrong thing – but comedy is all about coming up with crazy ideas, saying silly things and making a fool of yourself so embrace it, use comedy to say the most surprising and least predictable thing and if all else fails… trip over something. But make sure you land on something soft please!

You’re one of the judges. What will you be looking for?

Shane Allen: The ideas that feel unique and only that one person or team has created. Something that surprises. Work that feels relatable to a wider audience so that everyone can get it. Well written material that is funny, original and creative and shows characterisation/great characters. Easy, right?

What can they win?    

Shane Allen: Winners in each category will have their work made and broadcast by the BBC in the autumn. They will have a chance to visit the BBC to see their work filmed. They will also receive a Comedy Classroom trophy, a signed certificate and a visit from a BBC Comedy comedian to their school.

• Find out more about Comedy Classroom and download resources on the Comedy Classroom website.

• Watch videos of the comedians performances.

Broadcast on Saturday 29th March 1969, A Stripe for Frazer was the fifth episode of the second series of Dad’s Army. It was recorded in a single evening’s recording session in studio TC6 at BBC Television Centre on 15th November, 1968.

The episode was made during a key point in the show’s gradual evolution from newcomer sitcom to flagship comedy. It was in this episode that the Verger begins to be established as a recurring character. Mainwaring gets to wear his officer's hat for the first time, and we also get to find out exactly what happened when Sergeant Wilson jilted Mrs Pike at the altar.

In short, it’s an important episode and without doubt, one that would still be regularly repeated today, were it not for one fairly significant problem. A Stripe for Frazer doesn’t exist. Or rather it did exist and bits of it sort of still do, however, the original mastertape of A Stripe for Frazer no longer exists in the BBC archives.

Back in the late 1960s, there was no videotape archive at the BBC. There wouldn’t be one until the late 1970s. This meant that after broadcast, virtually all television mastertapes would be returned to the BBC engineering department, who would wipe the tapes, ready to have new programmes recorded on them. This fairly basic act of money-saving recycling means that there are now huge chunks of our television history that simply don’t exist anymore. They’re gone.

Film copies of most major programmes were routinely made at this time, for the benefit of overseas broadcasters. It was one of these copies of the episode that viewers enjoyed in Australia. However, in the 1970s, many film copies were also junked (including A Stripe for Frazer). A 1978 stock-take logged the episode on a growing list of programmes that were ‘missing believed wiped’.

And that’s essentially how it remained until 2008, when BBC WM radio presenter Ed Doolan came forward with a remarkable private collection of audio tapes. In the 1960s and 1970s, Doolan, like many comedy fans of the time made his own home-recordings of programmes he enjoyed. However, in a time when the average home video recorder (the Sony CV2000) cost the same as a family car, if you wanted to record a programme at home, your only real option was to make an off-air audio recording.

Doolan was one of thousands of people who made recordings in this way. Most people never kept them. The usual technique was just to wave a microphone in the general direction of the TV set and hope for the best. However Ed Doolan was different. Not only did he keep his tapes in a beautifully catalogued private archive, but he went to great lengths to make sure his recordings were as good as was technically possible. Essentially, this involved ripping the back off his TV set and hard-wiring a tape recorder into the speaker output at the back. Incidentally this was an unbelievably dangerous thing to do with a 1960s TV set.
As a consequence of his perseverance, many programmes now exist (in audio-only form) that have otherwise been lost from the main BBC vaults.

Doolan later went to work as a presenter at BBC Birmingham and (in 2008) spoke about his collection to a BBC colleague. Paul Vanezis, then a producer on BBC 2’s The Sky at Night. Vanezis was also an archive television specialist, who has done much to help piece together the archives of programmes like Doctor Who, Quatermass and The Sky at Night and recognising the importance of the collection he did his best to go through the massive haul of recordings.

While all this was going on, I was off working for BBC Worldwide (the BBC's commercial arm). I’d been compiling a list of otherwise lost BBC television and radio programmes that might still exist in private collections. The work was primarily intended for BBC Audiobooks.

I was in touch with Paul and learnt of the Dad’s Army recording. I immediately put forward the suggestion that we release the audio on a BBC audio CD, along with one or two other rare bits of Dad’s Army archive. The original idea was to have something ready for Christmas 2009, although, as it turned out, we actually ended up releasing it only last year.

I also had another much odder idea for the Dad’s Army tape, however.

Back in 2006, BBCi (as it was then known) commissioned Manchester’s Cosgrove Hall animation studio to do something delightfully strange with a 1968 Doctor Who story. Just like Dad’s Army, there are a number of Doctor Who episodes that now (either wholly or partially) only exist as audio recordings. What Cosgrove Hall did in 2006 was to take the audio of two of these episodes from the late 1960s and re-create the missing visuals with completely new animation, lip-synced to the existing soundtrack. In effect, the end product was a new Doctor Who cartoon, albeit one featuring the original cast members of the 1960s. It was wonderful and was rightly hailed as such upon its BBC DVD release soon after.

Of course, with Dad’s Army we had the same problem. We had the sound, but no pictures to accompany it. In short – an obvious candidate for animation.

I initially began to assemble a team to look at the project in late 2009. The first person to come on board was the artist and illustrator Daryl Joyce, who quickly produced a beautiful piece of concept art of Captain Mainwaring.

Animators Zoran Jankovic and later Chris Bowles also joined us and we worked (entirely independently) on a short test animation, using a raw transfer of the tape. I called up the original camera script, and Radio Times historian Ralph Montagu, kindly traced some publicity images for us, that had been taken on the studio floor during the original recording session. We worked from this material over a period of months to story-board our test sequence, whilst discussing hilariously optimistic potential budgets and time-scales (and generally enjoying a luxury of time that we simply wouldn’t have once the project went into production).

I brought prolific artist Martin Geraghty on board soon afterwards, to handle the character design. I've been a fan of his magnificent work on the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip for a number of years. I was confident he’d be a lovely fit for the project – and so he was. Worked out in pencil and ink, the first of his absolutely brilliant concepts and character breakdowns for Captain Mainwaring were completed around November 2011.

The first formal pitch for our little project came on 21st December 2012, with a show of our test sequence. This was for BBC Entertainment, in the office of executive producer Caroline Wright. The meeting was at BBC Television Centre, with the studio space in which Stripe for Frazer had been shot just a few floors below us.

We spent about six months developing the project with Caroline, until around the end of June 2013 and it was a great pleasure to do so. Then we hit a problem.

Rumours had begun percolating through various bits of the BBC that some previously lost 1960s television programmes had been re-discovered somewhere in a film vault in central Africa. However, cards were (with some justification) having to be played very close to people’s chests. Had some lost ‘Dad’s Army’ film recordings been unearthed on a dusty shelf? Was Stripe for Frazer about to turn out not to be so long-lost as we all thought? It was quite possible. However, the parties involved weren’t ready to divulge any information yet. Given the uncertainty, the whole Dad’s Army animation project was quite sensibly put on hiatus - until everyone could be sure what had happened.

It eventually transpired that the source of all these tantalising rumours was the miraculous discovery of nine lost Doctor Who episodes in Nigeria. They’d been found by an independent researcher called Philip Morris, who had personally sifted through various film vaults across the world, looking for otherwise missing BBC programmes. The discovery was announced in October 2013, to much excitement.

However, there still remained a good deal of secrecy about what other material (if any) may have also been found at the same time. Into 2014, we still didn’t have an answer to the question of whether any Dad’s Army had been rediscovered as well. Finally, in March 2014, I phoned Philip Morris directly to ask if he was yet in a position to confirm one way or the other. There were perfectly reasonable limitations on what he felt able to talk about with regards to ongoing negotiations with other archives. However, after a short discussion of our situation, he was able to confirm that no Dad’s Army had been found in any form.

I went back to the ever-patient Caroline with the good/bad news (depending on how you look at it) and the project was put back on the desk of the commissioners at BBC 2. Sadly however, it seemed we had missed the boat. There had been a number of changes since we’d rested the project and for various reasons, the decision was made not to take things any further.

After over four years working/waiting on the project, it was, needless to say, disappointing to have to break this news to the other members of the animation unit. The decision, not long after, to resurrect the project came about as part of a number of attempts on my part to find someone who might be prepared to pick the idea up again. Having put together such a wonderfully talented team of animators and artists together, it seemed to be so very sad that we might never actually get to work on it together.

One of the many people I approached about this (and various other lost programme animations) was Ben Green, who was (and still is) working on BBC Worldwide’s new BBC Store project. BBC Store was the last chance for the animation project. The project couldn’t seem to find another champion for a while. It was, admittedly, a very unusual idea. However, Ben loved it immediately and so too did everyone else involved at BBC Store. Enthusiastic and supportive, they were all as genuinely excited by the project as we were.

Our eventual executive producer was Paul Hembury – a wonderfully patient and supportive man, who valiantly fought our corner whenever it needed fighting and supported us in every way we could possibly have wished for. Now some way into 2105, news of the forthcoming release of a Dad’s Army feature film, gave everyone a fantastic peg to hang the new project on. With this in mind, a target was set to have our animation completed and ready for release by early February.

This did not give us very much time, to say the least. In fact, after six years of pushing it, we now had only around three months to turn the whole thing around – a good two months less than the five we’d originally hoped for. And much of this time wouldn’t even be spent on animation. All of the character designs and animation kits had to be made up first – an eye-watering amount of work to complete on its own. However, having come so far, we certainly weren’t going to turn down the opportunity now – no matter how late the hours we’d have to put in to get it finished.

A first pass at sound restoration was completed from the original tape at the home-studio of the ever-talented Mark Ayres. And with this, work began in around October 2015, starting with a production meeting at Broadcasting House.

The production line (and that’s pretty much what it had to be) was worked out as a relay from artist to artist. From pencils, to inks, to tracing, to shading, to animation.

First, Martin Geraghty worked out all of the characters and any conceivable facial expression they might have in pencil and ink. A key part of this were the series of mouth-shapes for each and every phonetic position the mouth makes during speech – every ‘ee’, ‘ah’, ‘oo’ and ‘sh’.

The black and white line-art sheets then went up to Ben Morris in Edinburgh, who traced them into the computer using a programme called Adobe Illustrator. This effectively converts the art from a series of pixels into a series of mathematical points. Ben also shaded each character in only occasionally based on notes or guides from myself or Martin.

Mainwaring and (to a lesser extent) Wilson were the hardest characters to crack it seemed. However, this is probably just because we tackled them first. There’s still a few seconds of an early Mainwaring head-design left in the finished animation (about halfway through the episode). 

The trick, Martin found was to get a good balance between a very graphical cartoon of the character and something that communicated the more realistic humanity of the actor. Frazer was probably the most successful. A character like Frazer was always going to be such a gift. Angry all the time, he merely varies between gently seething and absolutely furious. You just need to work within that range. Martin captured him superbly.

Once every element of a character has been drawn out and rendered, the various layers of art were built up in the computer as a kit – one for each pose of each character. These kits started life as sheaves of tracing paper held together with bulldog clips in Martin’s studio. However, by the time they reach the animators, they exist as digital file, which they can cut-up and move about in whatever way needed to create a fully articulated puppet in the animation program.

While all this was going on, our background artist was working on the background plates. This was Daryl Joyce’s part of the process. Keen to try and tap into the aesthetic of wartime cartoon films, I asked Daryl to take a look at some of the light-suffused water-based background paintings in Disney films like ‘Pinocchio’ (1940). The wooden boarded workshop of the carpenter in that film was cited as a key tonal reference for the Dad’s Army church hall set. Just as Disney’s artists had done back in 1940, Daryl also approached these backgrounds principally with pencil and brush – working with the same kinds of water-based gouache paint that would have been available in 1940.

This was a very important part of the overall look of the project. At some stage, each and every element seen on screen in the finished animation was hand-drawn. Nothing was drawn entirely digitally – only traced. So everything from Mainwaring’s football rattle, to the piano in the church hall, to the platoon’s gas-masks started life with a blank piece of paper and a pencil.

Of course, we were also very keen to match the original television as closely as was practical. The storyboard mostly followed the original shots as laid out in the original camera script. The camera script was an invaluable document, in fact – effectively providing a story-board in written form, from which we could work.

The character of the policeman was the trickiest in regard to getting the accuracy right. We had no photographic reference for him at all. We knew he had been played by an actor called Gordon Peters, but that was all. Happily, I was easily able to contact Peters in person and he was able to help us directly in getting his character looking just right. We also consulted a police historian, to help us replicate the look of an authentic 1940s police uniform. When it came to putting a personal identification number on the policeman’s uniform, we even went so far as inserting a little in-joke, which you will only be able to spot if you really know your early BBC police dramas.

Similar research was undertaken to make sure we had the correct wartime brands of ceiling paint for the church office and contraband cigars for Walker’s bag of black-market goods.

Perhaps the most time-consuming single shot was the opening title sequence. Designed by the criminally uncredited (until now) BBC designer Colin Whitaker, the original opening title animation for ‘Dad’s Army’ was created in 1968, using acetate animation cells. Against all the odds, the original 35mm black and white film inter-positive films still exist and so we had a fresh 1080p high definition transfer struck for us to work from. It was decided from the start that the new animation would be produced in full HD, with an eye on any possible future outlets the episode might enjoy outside of BBC Store.  

For obvious reasons, the picture in these original film sequences wasn’t widescreen. Made with the squarer 4.3 television sets of 1968 in mind, none of the BBC’s Dad’s Army film holdings will fit within a modern widescreen television frame.

Traditionally there are two solutions to this issue. You either leave empty spaces (or black bars) to the left and right of the picture. Or alternatively, you crop the top and bottom of the picture until the image is of the right shape to stretch into a modern 16.9 frame. Now, the cropping technique is of course, the work of Satan and you should never ever do it to any archive programme under any circumstances. Cropping destroys the original framing, degrades the definition (when spreading the image out) and often misses out vital picture information. It is, televisually speaking, pure evil.

However, I wasn’t nuts about the idea of black bars either. So, we came up with a third simple solution. And when I say simple, I of course mean, staggeringly complex and time-consuming. We painted new picture information in to the left and right of the existing image area – thus extending the picture across the empty areas to fill the whole frame. The end product is a full high definition version of the Dad’s Army title sequence in true widescreen and with all the film blemishes painted out. The mind-boggling workload of going through each of these near one and a half thousand frames fell to Rob Ritchie, who has done an incredible job.

By Christmas the number of shots we needed to get through (around 275 in all) was slowly going down. We were gradually getting through it. All the characters had pretty much been drawn and kitted up. And once we’d fixed Frazer’s inexplicably giant head, they were all looking pretty good.

Then I got a call from the lovely Paul Hembury. And it’s a testament here to just how lovely Paul is that I’m still able to call him lovely after he asked me the following question. “Can we move the deadline forward ten days?”

This made things… interesting. There were now only two ways of meeting the deadline. Firstly we brought in some more animators (including the truly amazing Andy Gubba). Secondly, we put a stop to any non-essential luxuries activities like sleeping, eating, or Christmas.

I cannot articulate just how indescribably hard everyone worked during this period. A 3am finish was not unusual. There was scarcely ever an hour of the day when someone somewhere was not working on A Stripe For Frazer.

We finished the last shot with less than a day to spare. Except of course, that day wasn’t really to spare at all. During the animation process you build up a long list of corrections and amendments that you intend to go through fixing in the final week. Only we didn’t have a final week. We had less than a day. We were, in fact, dropping in last minute fixes while the master was being played out to tape on the very day of delivery. And I’m particularly grateful here to Scott Bayliss and Phil Dee at BBC Studios and Post-Production's Digital Media Services, for their infinite patience with us, while we waited for new shots to upload.

When that deadline moved, it essentially took away our review time – that valuable period when we all sit down and pick the animation apart and put it back together again – tweaking and fixing one shot at a time. However, I can’t be too hard on it. It’s still a staggering achievement. It just shouldn’t be humanly possible to turn around this much animation with such a small team in such a short space of time.

Adding it up, we turned out around over 46,000 frames in little more than 7 weeks. To do all this to as high a standard as we did (for really very little money) is something that everyone on the project can be immensely proud of. I delivered the final master materials to Paul Hembury on Friday 22nd January 2016 – running through Wood Lane tube station and across the road to a rainy Television Centre just before 7pm.

These days, Television Centre is largely deserted in the evenings. The letters on the side of TC1 are all dark at night now. The building - empty and still in the Shepherd’s Bush rain. Nearly 50 years ago however, A Stripe for Frazer was being shot here, in the old spur of TC6.

Standing out there on the wet pavement, with the newly animated masters in my bag, it was good to be bringing the episode back home.

Charles Norton is Producer of the animated episode of 'Dad's Army - A Stripe For Frazer'.

• 'Dad's Army - A Stripe For Frazer' is available now from BBC Store.
• Test your knowledge in BBC Radio 4's 'Rather Tricky Dad's Army Quiz'.
• Don't Panic! Just take heed of 'Seven Life Lessons From Dad's Army'.
• Listen to Authur Lowe on Desert Island Discs.

Adil Ray’s creation gives us plenty of iconic Christmas comedy moments from donkeys to talking snowmen, it’s packed with great set-pieces and a wonderful emotional ending. Great to see this series go from strength to strength at the heart of BBC One. Long may he continue to cause chaos all around him.

We’re Doomed: The Making of Dad’s Army
Wednesday 22nd December, 9pm, BBC Two

Paying homage to the origins of this comedy titan. Charting the fascinating journey from the writer’s vision to television glory with insights in to the vagaries of the creative and commissioning process and how sheer determination, passion, luck, alchemy and mischief played their part in making TV history. Sublime performances throughout, We're Doomed does a huge legacy justice.

Boomers
Wednesday 23rd December, 9.30pm, BBC One

A special Christmas mis-adventure ahead of the new series next year. The cast deliver a masterclass in comic performance as they return from a French trip to a Christmas market and the wheels come off in more ways than one. Fantasy casting and pin sharp writing, something for everyone to relate to here.

The Detectorists Christmas Special
Wednesday 23 December, 10pm, BBC Four

More of an adjunct to series 2 than a Christmas themed special. Mackenzie keeps on surprising with this wonderful tale. A modern day parable which on one level works as a cautionary tale but at heart contains all the rich metaphors of life’s journey and deep-seated friendship. Just a delight unlike any other.

Harry Hill in Professor Branestawm Returns
Christmas Eve, 5.20pm, BBC One

Harry Hill returns in this fantastical comic romp as the madcap inventor, mainly of chaos. This time there’s a rival for young Connie’s attention. It plays out like a modern day Ealing comedy packed with a dazzling array of modern British comedy faces.

Peter Kay: 20 Years of Funny 
Christmas Eve, 9.05pm, BBC One

Car Share and Cradle to Grave have enjoyed phenomenal success this year and we celebrate this milestone in Peter’s life and career by looking back on his journey to the top. Featuring highlights from his stand-up and scripted work, Peter and those who know him well tell us how he got there. A chance to revel in the creations and work of a unique and well-loved British comedy talent.

Walliams & Friend
Christmas Eve, 10.05pm, BBC One

David back to what he does brilliantly, create and perform terrific sketches alongside comedy hero Joanna Lumley. Filmed before a live studio audience the show romps through hilarious concepts and parodies with relish. Contemporary yet classic, it’s a rare feat to pull off and proof that the sketch show in the right hands can still deliver laughs in surprising and satisfying ways.

Not Going Out Christmas Special
Christmas Eve, 10.45pm, BBC One

One man joke machine Lee Mack heads up this festive treat in which he becomes the unlikely hero when a Christmas shopping trip goes very badly wrong. This sitcom is now the longest running British sitcom still on air with next year marking its 10th anniversary. The gag well never runs dry with Lee.

Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special
Christmas Day, 9.45pm, BBC One 
New Year's Day, 10.30pm, BBC One

Come on Agnes! Two specials from the big comedy heavy-weight. The whole family is rooting for Mrs Brown in this feel good family treat. If there’s a finer and more inventive comic performer in front of a studio sitcom audience than Brendan O’Carroll in the whole wide world then I’ll eat something I shouldn’t, then again that’s what Christmas is all about.

Comedy Bloopers
Christmas Day, 11.45pm, BBC One

Cock-ups and howlers from all your favourite comedy shows. Hilarious stocking filler stuffing for when you’re just about to pass out.

Comic Relief 2015: Thanks a Billion
Boxing Day, 1pm, BBC One

Highlights and reflections on another landmark year for Comic Relief.

The Farmer's Llamas
Boxing Day, 6.10pm, BBC One

Originated half hour animation created for the BBC featuring the characters from the recently Golden Globe nominated Shaun The Sheep. Quintessential family entertainment from one of the most globally successful proponents of British creativity.

Still Open All Hours
Boxing Day & 27th December 8pm, BBC One

Still fantastic, what a privilege to see a comedy classic in full flow after all these years. I had a personal 'religious' moment when I first saw the unpredictable till on set at a recording. Sir David Jason and Christmas just feel so perfect together. We are blessed with a Christmas special which flows in to the new series.

A Gert Lush Christmas 
Boxing Day, 9pm, BBC Two

Russell Howard writes and stars in this raucous family Christmas story shot through with earthy humour and lots of heart. If you think your family is a bit full on, strap in for this.

Catherine Tate's Nan
Sunday 27th & Wednesday 30th December, 10.25pm, BBC One

The nation’s most cantankerous relative is back with 2 specials that can only serve to make us feel better about our own relatives. Catherine Tate’s performance is a tour de force of character comedy and long may she continue to wind everyone up. For those who like their comedy with a kick in the teeth.

Two Doors Down
Mon 28th December, 10.50pm, BBC Two

Ok, a repeat. Sue me. The series is coming soon and this’ll whet the appetite. The Bairds host a wee party for neighbours and family which doesn’t quite go to plan. Wonderful writing and a terrific cast.

Charlie Brooker's 2015 Wipe
Wednesday 30th December, 9pm, BBC Two

Insightfully sharp reflections on the year's events. Your full on satire fix and much needed anti-dote to cleanse the palate after all the forced jollity of Christmas.

Billionaire Boy
New Year’s day, 7pm, BBC One

Screen adaptation of the hugely popular David Walliams book. Another treat for all the family with an array of superb comedy cameos and a wonderful Christmas message about family and friendship at the heart of it.

COMING SOON!

Tracey Ullman's Show (BBC One) in early January. She’s back at the Beeb after a 30 year break taking America by storm. Talent doesn’t come much bigger and the show is packed with characters, ideas and impressions that’ll knock you for six. A personal childhood hero and turns out is a very lovely woman to boot. Not that I’d boot her, just a saying.

The Rack Pack in mid-January (iPlayer exclusive). A feature length fictional biography about the heyday of the British Snooker world in the 70s and 80s. Charting the huge growth in popularity of the game from backroom hobby to national phenomenon through personalities like Alex Higgins, Steve Davis & Jimmy White – 18.5 million people watched the ’85 final. It’s iPlayer's first fictional feature length piece and perfect for those dark winter nights.

Rest assured that we’re already putting markers down on pieces for Christmas 2016, the panic has kicked in that it’ll never be as jam-packed and varied as this year. We do have a special Sitcom Season to look forward to in early Autumn which runs across all the channels and will be a big moment for British comedy. The laughter never stops. Nor do the migraines.

All the best to you and yours! Enjoy!

Shane Allen is Controller, Comedy Commissioning.